- “This is a reckless, militarized intrusion.” – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
- “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.” – Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker
By Vanguard Staff
CHICAGO — The Trump administration announced plans to deploy 300 National Guard troops to Chicago in what it called an effort to restore law and order — a move denounced by Illinois leaders and civil rights advocates as an unlawful and politically motivated show of force against a city that has resisted the president’s agenda.
The deployment, confirmed Saturday evening by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, came after weeks of escalating tensions between federal authorities and local officials. Pritzker said the Pentagon notified him early in the day that the president would federalize Illinois National Guard units “in the coming hours,” despite the state’s refusal to consent.
“This morning, the Trump administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will. They will pull hard-working Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance — not a serious effort to protect public safety. For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.”
The White House insisted the move was necessary to “protect federal officers and assets” in the wake of protests near Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
“Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like [Gov.] Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, President Trump has authorized 300 national guardsmen to protect federal officers and assets,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”
However, both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson argued that the deployment violates state sovereignty and risks further inflaming tensions.
Johnson said local law enforcement and community leaders have been coordinating to maintain public safety and condemned the federal mobilization as “a reckless, militarized intrusion.”
The administration’s announcement followed reports of a violent confrontation Friday night outside the ICE Broadview detention center in suburban Chicago, where Border Patrol agents shot and wounded a woman alleged to have rammed her car into law enforcement vehicles.
The Department of Homeland Security said the woman, identified as a U.S. citizen armed with a semi-automatic weapon, was treated and released from Mount Sinai Hospital. No officers were seriously injured.
The ACLU of Illinois responded with outrage, warning that the president’s actions continue a disturbing pattern of militarized crackdowns in Democratic-led cities. “This is the latest escalation of attacks on people in the Chicago area,” said Colleen K. Connell, executive director of the ACLU of Illinois. “From federal officers’ attack on Black and Brown residents — including children — living in an apartment building on the City’s South Side, to the indiscriminate firing of pepper balls and projectiles in our neighborhoods and against protesters, Trump is targeting Chicago. The president clearly despises the reality that Chicago rejects his cruel policies, but we will not be intimidated.”
Since the start of his second term, Trump has repeatedly threatened to send troops into major American cities under the pretext of protecting federal property or controlling protests. Over the past several months, he has deployed federalized National Guard units to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Portland, often over objections from governors and mayors.
“Yet again President Trump is escalating tensions with a National Guard deployment, just as he has in other American cities,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “We see the president’s strategy for what it is — placing National Guard troops in legal and ethical jeopardy in an attempt to create conflict, sow fear in our communities, and intimidate people from exercising their constitutional rights. But we can’t let this president normalize military and armed federal policing in our country and must remember that no matter what uniform they wear, federal agents and troops are bound by the Constitution and must be held accountable if they violate our rights.”
Legal experts warned that the federalization order likely relies on 10 U.S.C. § 12406, a provision allowing the president to call up state National Guard units under Title 10 authority. Troops activated under this statute are barred by the Posse Comitatus Act from performing domestic law enforcement functions — a prohibition that has been repeatedly tested by the administration’s growing reliance on military forces in domestic operations.
A federal judge in California recently ruled that similar orders to California National Guard troops forced them into positions that violated the law. And on Saturday, a separate federal judge in Oregon — Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee — blocked the administration’s deployment of 200 Guard members to Portland, writing that the move “risk[ed] blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation.”
Chicago, like other cities targeted by the administration, has seen a surge in immigration enforcement operations and protests in recent weeks. Local civic groups and immigrant-rights organizations say raids and arrests have become increasingly aggressive, with federal agents reportedly using helicopters, unmarked vehicles, and military-style tactics in residential neighborhoods.
In August, Trump gave an address to senior military leaders in which he described Chicago and other cities as potential “training grounds” for domestic operations. “They’re very unsafe places and we’re going to straighten them out one by one,” he said. He urged officers to view deployments in U.S. cities as opportunities to “combat the enemy from within.”
Pritzker and Johnson have both said they will explore legal avenues to challenge the deployment, citing violations of state authority and federal law. Civil liberties groups, meanwhile, have pledged to hold federal agencies accountable for any constitutional abuses that may follow.
“This mobilization would be the latest attempt by the Trump administration to scare the millions of people living in American cities,” the ACLU said in its statement. “But we will not be intimidated.”
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